Imaginaire Problèmes
by Santouryuu
Summary: The Lyoko warriors haven't been themselves lately. Is Xana's absence bittersweat? With him gone, the group fights a new battle: amongst themselves. This story has been discontinued. My apologies.
1. Normality

------------

Code LYOKO spoilers ahead

_**Prologue... and... tidbits... of important information... that you might want to know... ahem**_

The story line of this fan-fiction takes place between the third and fourth season of Code LYOKO. I have changed a few details within the plot to better suit my story line; for one, the gang was able to stop William in LYOKO, so he did not destroy the core. The virtual realm of LYOKO is still in tact, and the they are still fighting to protect the core from Xana's attacks. Time wise, it's been about 4 weeks since the possessed William tried to destroy the core. There have been no Xana attacks since then, which has Jeremie quite on edge; Indecision and heartbreak plagues Ulrich; Aelita is worried about Jeremie; Yumi is worried about her friends, as well as her parents, and Odd is concerned for Aelita.

------------

DISCLAIMER: I DO **_NOT_** OWN THE RIGHTS TO CODE LYOKO

Chapter 1: _Normality._

It was late morning, 11:30AM, maybe. Jeremie, Odd, Aelita, and Ulrich were all in Ms.Hertz's class. The lecture was quite a bore, at least it was to Odd, whom was fidgeting around, and playing with his pencil, trying, pathetically, to occupy himself. The only thing on his mind, of course, was lunch. 'Just thirty minutes to go,' he thought.

Jeremie, who himself was paying little attention to the discussion at hand, was situated at the back of the class, strangely enough.

Xana had not made an attack in four weeks, which had Jeremie on constant guard, hence the strange behavior. Even though the program on his computer tracked Lyoko constantly for any signs of activated towers, he always wanted to be sure, himself, that it was working properly. Every few minutes, he would lean over to his book-bag, lift his laptop open slightly, and check to see if his program was running. Not surprisingly, his program was running just fine, each and every time he checked. He was becoming utterly paranoid - hell, forget "becoming," he _was _utterly paranoid.

Sitting next to Jeremie, of course, was Aelita. She didn't seem like her usual self, as well. Jeremie was to blame for that. He had constantly been at his computer, monitoring Lyoko and tweaking his programs, for the past four weeks, devoting little time to his friends, or her; needless to say, she felt uneasy about it. She stared blankly at her text book; obviously, school work was not what was on her mind.

Seated next to the window in the very corner of class was Ulrich. As he did all of the time during class, he looked out the window, his state of mind being in "day dream mode." Ulrich knew that he needed to pay attention, so that he'd make better grades. But, at the same time, he felt like he had bigger problems. Every day, for the past two months, the same line played over and over again in his head, 'I think we should just be friends;' Yumi's words. It devastated him when he first heard it, and he tried his hardest to hide the fact it was bothering him. Even so, the perceptive Odd could see his heartbrokeness. Though, try as he might, there was no satirical remark Odd could make that would cure Ulrich from his "despair;" _was _there a cure for heart break? It wasn't as if he could just tell it to go away, like Robert Plant. Looking to ditch class, Ulrich unwittingly interrupted Ms.Hertz.

"Excuse me, Ms.Hertz. May I go to the infirmary?" Said Ulrich, trying to sound concerned. Ms.Hertz responded:

"What seems to be the problem, Ulrich?" Her saying this in a rather doubtful fashion. Urich retorted:

"Well, I've had an upset stomach lately, and with lunch approaching, I wanted to make sure I didn't have a fever, or something, before I ate."

His response was pathetic, at best; Ulrich doubted that she would buy it. Quite the contrary, she took the bait:

"Okay, Ulrich, you're excused."

He inwardly 'Yes!'ed, gathered his things, and walked out of class. As these events were unfolding, Odd gave a jealous eye to Ulrich's escape from the classroom. Odd would have asked to go to the infirmary, too, but he knew that he wouldn't get away with it after Ulrich had just asked; Ms.Hertz was not stupid, she would easily catch on to the charade. Jeremie paid no attention to Ulrich's departure, and Aelita, trying to put her concern for Jeremie out of her mind, wondered what was up. Perhaps he was rendezvousing with Yumi? Perhaps he just wanted to leave class? Or, perhaps, he was actually telling the truth, and he really did not feel well? In any case, she hadn't a clue. Trying to dig up a comment from her friends, she said, "I wonder where Ulrich is going," to which, neither Odd nor Jeremie answered.

Minutes later, Ulrich was outside of the school, standing outside of Yumi's classroom's window. He would usually peer through the window to get Yumi's attention, but, this time, he just stood there next to the window, idling around as if waiting for something to happen. He depressingly spoke in soliloquy:

"_Sigh..._ Great, now I can't seem to work up the courage to even get her attention."

He walked to the school's courtyard, where the students usually congregated before and after classes. He continued contemplating his plight until he reached a 'determined' decision; he would speak with her in private the very moment he could.

After a while, the bells rang, and the students were let out for their lunch break. Odd was pretty excited about it as he left class. He asked Jeremie what was for lunch.

"Say, Einstein, do you know what we're havin' today? I'm staved!"

Jeremie irritably retorted:

"No, Odd, I don't know what we're having. I'm not going to lunch, anyway."

Aelita responded to Jeremie, in a rather worried manner:

"But, Jeremie, aren't you hungry? You skipped breakfast this morning."

Jeremie, turning to walk down another corridor, rudely retorted to Aelita:

"Don't worry about me. I'm going to my room."

Aelita frowned as she watched Jeremie walk down the other corridor to the dorm rooms. She stared at the ground slightly as she walked towards the lunch room with Odd. Her facial expression connoted pure dismay; Odd noticed this immediately - he was no fool to her preculiar mannerisms. He asked, in his usual flamboyant manner:

"Anything wrong, Princess?"

She was somewhat uplifted by the fact that _someone_ was concerned about her, but she didn't feel like giving him an honest answer. She responded, in her adorably meek manner:

"Nothing's wrong, I'm just... hungry, is all"

Odd knew she was lying. Aelita never got upset about trivial things like "hunger." Trying to dig into what was bothering her, he gave it his best guess.

"It's Jeremie, isn't it? "

Aelita didn't answer. She shifted her eyes in the opposite direction of where Odd was walking, and sighed under her breath. Odd thought to himself, 'I knew it...'

As Odd and Aelita approached Ulrich at the bench on which he was sitting, they noticed Yumi approaching, as well. Odd was the first one to speak.

"Well, Ms.Hertz's class was certainly exhilarating, I think I might have actually learned something."

His sarcastic comment garnered him not one laugh. He responded to this with another frivolous remark.

"Tough crowd."

Ulrich looked over at Yumi, whom was just standing there, somberly looking off in another direction. He felt the need to spark a conversation with her.

"Hey, Yumi, are you okay? You seem a bit out of it today."

Yumi looked over at Ulrich, a hint of a smile on her face. She responded:

"I'm fine. I've just been having a few problems with my parents lately."

Talking about her family wasn't something she normally did, but it showed that it wasn't something that was really bothering her, since she was willing to say something to them about it. She said to Ulrich:

"You don't seem like yourself, either. Why were you here before the others?"

Ulrich was reluctant to answer her. Although, if he didn't say anything, the pretentious joker Odd would.

"I managed to get out of class early. I went by your class' window, but I decided not to bother you. That's when I came here."

A disappointed look came over Yumi after she heard Ulrich's response. She said, rather sadly:

"... Well, it's not like I would have minded if... if you did, you know? "

The somewhat flushed Ulrich couldn't seem to come up with a retort to this remark - he could barely look at her, disappointed as she was.

Yumi, noticing that her remark wasn't exactly a statement to which he could respond, tried to take her attention away from the situation at hand, and looked around, to noticed that Jeremie, once again, was not joining them.

"So, is Jeremie in his room?"

Odd retorted:

"Yeah. I know he wants to make sure Lyoko's safe, and all, but he's got to stop locking himself up in his room all of the time."

Odd looked over at Aelita, whom still seemed dismayed; perhaps even more dismayed than before. The topic at hand sure wasn't helping. He placed his hand on her shoulder, and said:

"Don't worry, Aelita. I'm sure that Jeremie will come around, soon. Don't forget that he's fighting to protect the entire world! A large burden like that could really get to a guy - give him a heavy workload, you know?"

His words didn't seem to comfort her very much. Her worry was rather stoic, and it didn't seem like there was anything Odd could say that would soothe it. Trying a different approach at cheering her up, he said:

"C'mon, Aelita, let's eat! After we're done, we can take a tray of food to Jeremie."

The somewhat uplifted Aelita, as well as Odd, walked off to the lunch room. Yumi began following after them. Ulrich knew that this was his chance.

"Uh... Yumi..."

She turned around, responding with a, "hmm?", and looked at Ulrich with a perplexed demeanor. Ulrich, looking towards the ground, and with an advantageous voice, said:

"Well, I was wondering, maybe..."

His hesitation was a stab in the throat. Now he felt as though he would not be able to say anything to Yumi at all, and the poor, indecisive, devil decided to back off from his original plan, entirely.

"Erm.. Never mind!"

He quickly walked passed the confused Yumi, and set his sights on the lunch room. All of the sudden, he felt a tug at his arm, and fearfully looked back. Yumi held him by the arm, and gazed at him rather seriously. She said with concern:

"What's up with you, Ulrich? You don't usually act like this."

Ulrich was a bit stuck for words. He simply pulled away, turned around with his back facing her, and solemnly said:

"... I'm sorry..."

Ulrich continued walking to the lunch room, leaving Yumi by herself. The things going through her mind - about Jeremie shutting himself off; about Aelita being really worried about Jeremie; about Ulrich's strange behavior - caused her to question the meaning of "normality" amongst the five. With a sigh, she walked to the lunchroom.

(End of chapter 1)

--- Yeah, not very great. But, it will get better, though I can't guarantee it. As said before, any kind of advice or criticism is welcomed. 


	2. Nice Going

Well, here's chapter two. It's better than chapter one was, I can assure that much. As to it being good, or not, I can't say for a fact. I'll let you all decide that.

The following story contains course language, and some content that is not meant for young readers.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Code Lyoko. And I'm damn glad that I don't, too, because I would probably ruin it with my lack of creativity.

----

Chapter 2: _Nice Going_

It was late in the evening, about 10:12PM. The students in the dorm rooms of Kadic academy were either getting ready for bed, or getting ready to sneak out. For Ulrich, it was the latter.

After telling his comedic roommate where he was going, he crept down the hall of the dormitory, feeling quite content with his ninja-like movement. He had managed to make it past eagle-eyed Jim, or so he calls himself. Though, don't ask him about it, because he won't tell you a thing; he'd "rather not talk about it."

Ulrich made his way to the school's gym, planning for an after hours work-out session. He walked through the mysteriously unlocked gym doors, and walked to the very middle of the gym, as he usually did.

After doing a few stretches, he began taking martial arts poses, curving and twisting his body in complicated fashions. While in the midst of this haze of Kung-Fu, his drifting mind, thinking of you-know-who, caused him to ill-perform a particular maneuver; he inadvertently fell.

"Damn it!"

Ulrich wasn't one that usually shouted such expletorial remarks, but this time, he didn't try to prevent its slipping out. After brushing himself off a bit, he began to take a slow pace to his martial arts, to an almost Tai'Chi Chuan like speed. His movements seem to denote heavy meditation and pensiveness, rather than a furious warrior fighting imaginary opponents. With a sigh, he said to himself:

"Why is it so hard to concentrate?"

The sound of the gym doors opening quickly caught his attention.

"What the-- ?"

-----------------------

Meanwhile, in Jeremie's room, Jeremie was burning the midnight oil on his computer, typing away at an incredibly fast rate, the contents of what he was tryping being complex and esoteric.

He was creating an updated version of his activated tower search program, which he thought was not working well enough. He began yammering mathematical nonsense under his breath, and ceasing from typing every few moments to mentally check his calculations.

Jeremie was a train wreck; He was hungry, tired to the bone, and the guy could have used a shower, too. He shook his head a few times to get the tired out of him, and rubbed his eyes a moment.

"... I can't stop now... I have too much work to do."

Shortly after he began working again, there was a knock at his door. He didn't turn around to see who it was, he simply said:

"Yes, who is it?"

Surprisingly, it was Aelita, whom had snuck out of her room to see how Jeremie was doing. She said:

"It's just me, Jeremie. How's the new program coming?"

Jeremie, still working away at his computer, said:

"It's not a new program, Aelita, it's just an update to my program that scans for activated towers. This update of mine will allow the program to search more thoroughly through Lyoko."

After a moment or so, Aelita retorted, rather hesitantly:

"Oh... I see..."

She then gathered her courage, and asked him a question she had recited in her head many times. It was definitely something important to her:

"Um... Jeremie? I was wondering... Maybe... Could you join me at lunch tomorrow?"

Still typing, he responded:

"Sorry, Aelita. Xana takes no breaks, and neither do I."

As much of a contradiction the statement was, Aelita sensed sincerity in what he said. She felt the passion he exemplified in his devotion to fighting Xana, and eliminating the threat he posed. But, was it just an excuse so that he could shroud himself in a virtual fairy world? Was it just a thrill ride to him? Or was he actually doing it for her? Nontheless, he needed to live a life outside of his computer screen. Aelita pleaded with Jeremie:

"But... Jeremie... What about--"

Jeremie interrupted:

"Like I said, Aelita, I can't. Maybe some other time."

She heaved a lonely sigh, and walked towards the door to leave, but not before saying:

"I guess you did forget..."

With this last remark said, Jeremie stopped typing, and turned around to face Aelita; she had already left. He rubbed his eyes once again, wondering what she could have been talking about. With a groan, he went back to his program.

--------------

In Odd and Ulrich's dorm room, Odd was sitting up in his bed, petting his beloved dog, Kiwi, and listening to some low-volume music. He was mad about a test he had failed earlier that day. Jeremie wasn't letting him copy off of his test papers, so his grades were slipping.

"Ugh. Damn you, Ms.Hertz. Why do you issue such hard tests, anyway?" He angrily said to himself

A moment later, he heard footsteps down the hall, and, what he thought to be, someone crying. The voice of the weeping person sounded familiar.

"Huh?"

He opened his door slightly, and saw that it _was_ someone that he knew: Aelita. She was walking out of Jeremie's room, and down the other end of the hall - her back was facing him. She was talking to herself in the midst of her crying:

"How could he have... forgotten about it?" She asked herself. "It was so important to us, and he forgot..."

The "he" she was referring to must have been Jeremie. It didn't come to Odd right away, but he eventually realized what she must have been upset about. To make sure his assumptions were correct, he checked his calendar.

"No way! It's already been that long?"

Odd recalled the situation in his head: Aelita was crying after leaving Jeremie's room, and then said that he forgot about something. Odd cringed.

"Oh, nice going, Einstein."

The royally pissed off Odd sat back down on his bed, and turned off his music. He sighed, and said:

"Looks like I need to hit the hay early, tonight."

He rolled over, and tried his best to fall asleep.

--------------

Ulrich looked with a grimace at who entered the gymnasium - it was none other than Sissi, herself.

"Hi, Ulrich-dear! Fancy meeting you here!" she said, her voice being so ghastly that she had thereby killed one thousand angels with each utterance.

Ulrich tried his best to ignore her; it was to no avail. She sat down on the bleachers, gazing longfully and irritatingly at him whilst he was practicing; it was getting on his nerves.

"Sissi, why do you have to bother me at this hour? Shouldn't you be asleep?" Asked Ulrich, aggravation evident in his tone.

"I just wanted to be alone with my future husband, Ulrich-dear."

Ulrich sighed, and returned to a standing posture. He began wondering how she even figored out that he was in the gymnasium, but immediately put the "how" out of his mind when he realized a fact he had understood for the longest time: Sissi's stalking techniques knew no equal. The "how" factor was not a problem for her when it came to pissing him off. He tried to set her straight, and send her packing:

"First of all, I'm not your 'future husband,' second of all, leave."

He pointed towards the door as he made the last remark. She got up and approached him.

"Oh, come on, Ulrich. The night is still young."

Ulrich became infuriated as she walked towards him. He shouted:

"Sissi! I said leave!"

She stopped dead in her tracks, perplexed as to why he was so angry. She screamed:

"Why?! Is Yumi coming here to meet you?"

Ulrich's expression change dramatically when she asked him this. He looked towards the ground for a moment, then back at Sissi.

"No. She isn't."

Ulrich placed his hands in his pockets, and walked out of the gym, leaving the confused, and slightly pissed, Sissi by herself. She said out of frustration:

"Oh, damn it! Nice going, Elizabeth!"

--------------

Back at the Ishiyama residence, Yumi and Hiroki's parents were having another fight. It was over money, from what Yumi could understand.

"What is your problem?! It's none of your business what I spend my money on!" Shouted Mr.Ishiyama.

"It's my business when you spend 500 dollars of your pay check on who-knows-what! It affects this family when you're loose with your money, Takeo!" Mrs.Ishiyama loudly retorted.

"What I do with my money isn't the problem, it's your redundant suspiciousness that's driving this family into the fucking hole!" Mr.Ishiyama brutally replied.

Yumi was sitting on her bed. Hiroki was right next to her crying his eyes out. The yellings of their parents could be heard clearly, even though they were upstairs. Yumi tried her best to comfort her young, and scared brother:

"It'll be okay, Hiroki. They'll stop fighting soon, and everything will be okay."

Yumi, herself, felt like crying. But, she had to be strong for Hiroki. She thought to herself: "_Damn you, mom and dad! Did you both forget that you have kids?!" _

After about 15 minutes, their parents had stopped fighting, or so it seemed. Yumi went downstairs to see how things were, when she saw her dad walking towards the door, carrying a suitcase with him. He looked in the kitchen at his wife, and said:

"Fine. If you want me gone, then I'm leaving."

Mrs.Ishiyama kept quiet; She simply gave him a look of disgust right before he was about to walk out the door. Before he could leave, however, Yumi spoke out, in a pissed off and sad tone:

"Why do things have to be this way?! Can you two not fight for once?!"

Her parents didn't seem affected by her words. Takeo Ishiyama simply "Hmph"ed as he walked out of the door, and Mrs.Ishiyama looked in the other direction, a blatant expression of anger on her face. Yumi was the one who was _really_ angry, though. She punched the wall, and yelled:

"Err! Nice going! Wait to resolve the problem!"

Yumi heaved a deep sigh, and went back to her room. Her brother was asleep on her bed. Deciding not to disturb him, she _carefully_ tucked him in, as to not wake him up, and told him "good night." Yumi gathered an extra quilt and pillow, and slept on the floor in her room. Trying her best to put the fight out of her mind, and seek comfort in somethng, she thought for a moment, and asked herself:

"... I wonder if Ulrich's asleep..."

She reached up on her dresser, picked up her cell phone, and called Ulrich's phone.

-------------

As Ulrich was walking down the hallway to his and Odd's dorm room, he felt the vibration of his cell phone in his pocket. He grabbed his phone, and looked at his caller ID to see from what number he was being called. At first, he thought it might have been Sissi, but he soon found that it was, in fact, Yumi.

"... Yumi?" He said to himself.

Ulrich thought: "_What could she be calling for? Could she...?"_ Ulrich, plagued with his outright hestitative behavior around Yumi, didn't know what to do: Answer, or not answer? The side of himself that was utterly devoted to Yumi ORDERED him to answer the phone, but the cowardice within him that deterred him from even looking at Yumi was what was in control. His phone stopped vibrating, indicating that Yumi had ceased from trying to reach him. As Ulrich walked into the dorm room, the sleeping Odd oblivious to his entry, he angrily threw the cell phone on his bed. Ulrich irritably muttered under his breath:

"Nice going, you coward, what if it was something important?"

Ulrich reached for his cell phone, and began dialing Yumi's cell phone number. He paused right before hitting "send," and after a moment, he turned off his cell phone, dropped it on the ground, and fell back on his bed. He heaved a heavy sigh, and said in soliloquy:

"... Sorry, Yumi..."

Ulrich closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

-------------

Yumi clicked "end" on her cell phone, and placed it beside her. She stared intently at it for what seemed like an eternity before rolling over and closing her eyes.

"... I guess he's not going to call..."

-------------

And there it is... Yeah, sorry about the chapter title associations with each predicament. I thought it fitting, I suppose. (Shrugs) I worked pretty hard on this to make sure it was absolutely perfect, hence why it took over a week to write. But, don't worry, chapter three is in the making, and will be uploaded in a few days. Chapter four will probably come several days after chapter three.

Comment. Compliment. Criticize. Berate. Whatever you do, give me a truthful review. (Hey! I'm a poet, and I didn't know it!)


End file.
